Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressed his frustration on Tuesday at Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who offered an anti-abortion amendment to legislation that would renew the flood insurance program.

“I’m told last night that one of our Republican senators wants to offer an amendment — listen to this one — wants to offer an amendment on when life begins,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “I think some of this stuff is just – I have been very patient working with my Republican colleagues in allowing relevant amendments on issues, and sometimes we even do non-relevant amendments. But really, on flood insurance?”

Reid did not mention the Republican senator in question, but Politico identified Paul as the author of the amendment, which would state that life begins at the moment of conception. The amendment seeks to completely prohibit abortion.

“I am not going to put up with that on flood insurance,” Reid said. “I can be condemned by outside sources — my friends can say, ‘Let them have a vote on it.’ There will not be a vote on that on flood insurance. We’ll either do flood insurance with the amendments that deal with flood insurance, or we won’t do it. We’ll have an extension.”

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Eric W. Dolan has served as an editor for Raw Story since August 2010,
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